


Inches Away

by galacticsugar



Series: tumblr prompts - ways to say i love you [3]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Swearing, Tumblr Prompt, and study buddies wink wink, bad geology jokes, calum and luke are lab partners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28922709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticsugar/pseuds/galacticsugar
Summary: They’re just studying geology. Rocks, of all things. Luke is Calum’s lab partner for a required natural sciences course that neither of them actually wanted to take in the first place. Calum knew he was in trouble from day one. The professor assigned lab partners alphabetically, and it was bad enough just looking at Luke for the first time. Yes, he was beautiful, and yes, Calum definitely noticed. But it was more than that. Luke was captivating in a way Calum couldn’t entirely explain.***tumblr prompt "stay over."
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood
Series: tumblr prompts - ways to say i love you [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138103
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	Inches Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaleidoscopeminds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidoscopeminds/gifts).



> for the tumblr prompt "stay over" from the queen of cake herself, [meg](https://kaleidoscopeminds.tumblr.com/)!

Calum’s apartment always feels a little different when Luke’s over. It’s normally a blank canvas, eggshell-colored walls lined with Ikea bookshelves, only interrupted by curtainless windows. It’s a collection of dim ceiling fan lights and handle-less particle board kitchen cabinets. It’s somewhere to sleep at night, somewhere to heat up his pizza rolls, somewhere to study for class. It’s a place for Calum to exist for a year or maybe two. It’s not home. 

But when Luke is over, everything seems brighter. He paints Calum’s apartment walls with his glittering laughter, his golden hair, and his smiling blue eyes. When Luke is over, there’s warmth and color and Calum’s eggshell walls cast an inviting glow.

They’re just studying geology. Rocks, of all things. Luke is Calum’s lab partner for a required natural sciences course that neither of them actually wanted to take in the first place. Calum knew he was in trouble from day one. The professor assigned lab partners alphabetically, and it was bad enough just looking at Luke for the first time. Yes, he was beautiful, and yes, Calum definitely noticed. But it was more than that. Luke was captivating in a way Calum couldn’t entirely explain.

It only got worse a few minutes later, when Luke opened his mouth to speak his first words to Calum. “What do you call a rock that never goes to school?” he had asked, a cheeky smile on his face.

“Huh?” Calum replied intelligently, not realizing until a beat too late that it wasn’t a question he was really meant to answer.

“A skipping stone.” Luke smiled at Calum, nudged him lightly with his elbow, let out a little giggle. And that was it. Calum was gone. He started the semester absolutely dreading geology, but it quickly became his favorite class, because it meant spending time with Luke. 

Theoretically, they should be able to complete most of their work during class, but they found themselves spending too much time laughing and joking around with each other to finish their assignments. Rather than doing something logical, like focusing on their work during class instead of messing around, they came up with the idea of a weekly study session. They meet every Wednesday night to work on their lab homework, usually at Calum’s because Luke’s roommate is a pain in the ass.

Calum is a big fan of this arrangement because it means he gets to see Luke twice as often as he did before. Week after week, they sit at Calum’s dining room table or sprawled across the floor in front of his sofa, answering a question or two on their worksheet before digressing into half an hour of unrelated conversation. Maybe some heavy flirting. Rinse, repeat, until the worksheet is eventually done. 

Every week, Luke ends up staying at Calum’s just a little bit later. Last Wednesday, Calum said a begrudging goodbye around midnight, trying not to show his disappointment with Luke leaving. He hoped he wasn’t imagining that Luke seemed disappointed too.

This week, they have a midterm to study for, and it’s incredibly annoying that this stupid test is cramping Calum’s style. Wednesday nights are supposed to be fun and flirty, not focused and full of flashcards. Flashcards will almost definitely ruin the mood. How’s Calum supposed to work up the nerve to make a move if Luke’s preoccupied with learning the difference between jetties and groins? On second thought, maybe there’s something there he can work with.

Luke appears at Calum’s door with a smile, holding up a grocery bag no doubt packed with their well-established favorite study snacks. Luke anxiously bites the heads off gummy bears when they’re trying to answer a difficult question, and Calum prefers to take out his frustration by violently crunching on Cool Ranch Doritos.

“Hey, Luke,” Calum greets him, staying close to the front door so Luke has to brush past him to get inside. Luke smirks as he slides by. He probably knows exactly what Calum is doing but Calum is long past caring about subtlety. The only reason he hasn’t asked Luke out yet is because he doesn’t want to fuck up their lab partner arrangement before the semester is over. 

It’s not likely to happen - Calum has no intention of fucking anything up when it comes to Luke - but it’s better safe than sorry. Calum may or may not have experience in the realm of accidentally fucking up a lab partner arrangement with an ill-advised hookup and the resulting C- on his transcript. That was different, though. That wasn’t Luke. 

Still. Calum can’t afford another C- if he wants to keep his scholarship. So he waits and he flirts and he waits some more and he flirts some more, and the second he’s done with his final exam, he’s asking Luke out to dinner. Or maybe making out with him. Whichever comes first. The order doesn’t really matter to Calum, and he suspects it won’t matter to Luke either. 

“Living room or dining room today?” Luke asks, shrugging off his backpack.

“Living room, I think. This could take a while. We should be comfortable.”

Luke nods and sighs as he drops onto the floor, back against Calum’s sofa, and dumps the bag of treats out in the middle of the rug. “This test is going to suck ass.”

“Two hundred questions! That shouldn’t be legal,” Calum commiserates, sitting down a few feet away and gathering up the fucking flashcards.

Luke shoots him a wry smile. “Maybe if we sue the test will get postponed.”

“How do you even go about suing a geology professor for giving you a test?” Calum asks, wrinkling his nose.

“I don’t know,” Luke says, flailing his hands in exasperation. “Do you have any better ideas?”

“Study for the test?” Calum offers defeatedly.

“That’s a terrible idea.” Luke rips the top off his bag of gummy bears and stares at Calum beseechingly. “How are we supposed to get our work done if we’re busy studying.”

“Isn’t the studying the work?” Calum asks, even though Luke’s basically echoing his earlier thoughts about how studying was going to ruin their study session.

“Calum.” Luke shakes his head, disappointed. “You should know better.”

Calum laughs, reaching over to dig his hand into Luke’s bag of gummy bears. 

“Hey! Get your own gummy bears!” Luke kicks out one of his long legs, trying to push Calum away, but Calum manages to snag a small handful of gummies before he topples backwards. 

He holds up his hand victoriously and gives Luke a smug grin. “You can have some of my Cool Ranch Doritos to make up for it.”

“ _You’re_ a Cool Ranch Dorito,” Luke bites back easily.

“Why _cool ranch_ , do you think?” Calum asks thoughtfully, dropping the entire handful of gummy bears into his mouth.

“Like why is the flavor called cool ranch or why are _you_ cool ranch specifically?” Luke’s stretching his neck absentmindedly while he watches Calum, the look on his face far too serious for the silly question at hand. Luke always indulges him. Calum was truly blessed the day his geology professor decided to match up lab partners alphabetically.

“Both, I guess. I was mainly asking about the flavor, though. What is a cool ranch?”

“Like ranch dressing, obviously.”

“I know that, asshole, but what’s so cool about it? Are we talking cool as in temperature or cool as in _wow, that ranch is super cool, bro_?”

Luke’s hiccupy giggle floats around Calum’s living room as he considers. “The second one, I think.”

“Yeah,” Calum nods, finding that he completely agrees with Luke’s assessment despite the lack of explanation. “Definitely.”

“You know what isn’t cool, though?” Luke asks, peering at the flashcards next to Calum. “Ox-bow lakes.”

“I happen to think ox-bow lakes are pretty cool.” Calum raises his eyebrows in a challenge.

“Do you even know what they are?”

“I absolutely do not. I’m sure they’re cool though.” Calum picks up the flashcards to read the definition, eyes glazing over almost immediately.

Luke laughs at him, throwing his head back against the edge of the sofa. “We’re so screwed.” He tosses a few gummy bears in Calum’s general direction. “Incentive for you to study so we can get this over with and get back to the good stuff.” 

Calum carefully gathers the scattered gummies off the rug around him. “You were the one who said studying was a terrible idea.”

“That was before I realized how unprepared you are for the test.” Luke leans forward to snag the flashcards out of Calum’s hands. He lingers for a moment before he settles back against the sofa, close enough that Calum can smell the artificial fruit flavor on his breath. It’s strangely enticing. “Can’t have you failing out of class and leaving me without my trusty lab partner.”

Calum slides a gummy bear into his mouth. It’s not quite the same as kissing Luke, but maybe it will be enough to get him through this study session.

Six hours later the flashcards are strewn around Calum’s living room in various piles they have mentally labeled as _We Got This_ , _We Probably Got This_ , _This Fucking Blows_ and _Not Sure This Is Even Geology_. Both their eyes are bloodshot, and they’re existing in the purgatory of numb exhaustion you can only reach with a heavy dose of sugar and a side of caffeine. 

“I’m so tired,” Luke whines, throwing his arm across his eyes. “There’s no way I can possibly learn anything else tonight.” He yawns, and it pulls a sympathy yawn from Calum. 

“Yeah, we can stop. If we haven’t learned it by now we’re probably not going to learn it before 7am tomorrow.”

“Hmph,” Luke grumbles. His arm suddenly drops from his eyes. “Why 7am?” he asks, eyes suddenly wide and alert.

Calum cocks his head. “The test. It starts at seven tomorrow.”

“Seven. Not 9:30?” Luke asks flatly.

“Seven,” Calum repeats. “Special test time. Not normal class time.”

It’s silent as Luke slowly blinks his eyes once, then twice, as if the circumstances might be different the second time around. “Fuuuuuuuck.” He slumps over on his side, head resting against the top of Calum’s sofa. His eyes close and he sighs deeply.

Calum’s lips twitch into a smile. “I guess you forgot about the special test time.”

Luke opens his eyes, startling Calum with the sudden flash of blue. “I guess I did. _Damn it._ I should probably get going if I want to get any sleep tonight.” But he doesn’t move, bleary eyes unfocused as he tries to work up the motivation to get himself up off the floor.

“Stay over,” Calum says forcefully. It won’t make that much difference. Maybe one extra hour of sleep, at most. But it’s something.

Luke looks at Calum searchingly. He must find what he’s looking for, because he agrees almost immediately with a sharp nod. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You can take the sofa if you want, but --” Calum hesitates, unsure if the offer will sound unsavory. Luke’s sleepy smile pushes him forward. “--my bed is a lot more comfortable. And big,” he tacks on as a buffer.

Luke laughs; a quiet, lazy chuckle. “Bed sounds good,” he replies, unbothered.

Calum pushes himself to his feet, leaving the messy piles of notecards. He’ll deal with those later. He holds out a hand to Luke and Luke takes it, letting Calum pull him up off the floor and towards his room. When they reach it, Calum offers Luke some shorts to sleep in and leaves Luke to settle into bed while he drowsily brushes his teeth.

Luke looks like he’s already half asleep when Calum comes out of the bathroom and slides under the comforter next to him. There’s plenty of space between them, but Calum can feel the warmth radiating off Luke’s body. “Night, Luke,” he whispers as he turns off the light and lays down on his back.

“Hey Cal?” Luke’s voice is heavy with sleep.

“Hmm?”

“We should do this again sometime. When we’re not sleeping.”

It shocks a strangled laugh out of Calum. “I was already planning on it. After finals week.”

“Mmm, makes sense. We’ll never get our studying for the final done if we spend every Wednesday night _not sleeping_ ,” Luke replies suggestively. 

Calum rolls his eyes. “Plus you need time to prepare yourself for my best jetty and groin material.”

“I love perpendicular structures used to restrict longshore sediment transport,” Luke says softly, reciting the word-for-word definition of _groin_ from their flashcards as he drifts off to sleep.

Calum grins up at his ceiling in the dark.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr [@staticsounds](https://staticsounds.tumblr.com/); come say hi!


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